Mass Effect 2: Loyalty
by Dr.Compass
Summary: It was a rough argument, but he had convinced him to let her go. But what if events hadn't gone so perfectly? Based upon Chapter 10 of Angels and Demons, these are the outcomes that would've happened if Shepard wasn't fast enough, couldn't talk the beast down, or saw reason in his burning rage. Rated M for possibly discomforting content.


(A/N): I originally wanted to do a series of these sorts of scenes depicting parallel series of events where the chosen Shepard was different or certain events unfolded differently, but I felt they weren't significant enough to be worth investing time in. However, I did have several different outcomes in mind when developing Fred's loyalty mission. It usually involved different degrees of Samelthea dying. Painfully.

* * *

 **Shepard fails to catch up to Fredrick:**

 **Sept 01, 2185**

 **16 hrs/57 min/43 sec**

 **Kray Inc., Nan-Bei, Illium**

Arriving on the floor where Liara had informed she worked, they quickly sprinted down the yet untouched desks. Immediately, what drew their attention was the photo of Samelthea with eleven other Asari in armor. After having Garrus hack through the computer, Shepard proceeded to call Liara as she scanned the photo with her omnitool. "Liara, I'm sending an image to you. Can you make anything of this?" Linda asked.

 _Well, you at least helped to fill in the pieces. Samelthea T'zeros was previously a Commando Major working within the Asari Republic's armed forces. From the set of faces you just pulled up, the members of her team all show up as KIA, however the causes of the deaths are classified. If I were to guess based upon the memories I've seen from Fredrick, he was furious, and went hunting. After that, Samelthea disappeared and Nuialey M'tolas suddenly exists. Whatever she did, it's off the record and is probably something sensitive to the political stage, and all of the squad's last activities before being disbanded in 2069 are classified as well. The only way you're getting any more answers is if you ask Müller, and before he kills her,_ Liara explained.

"Then we really do need to hurry. Come on guys, we've got to stop Fredrick before he kills Samelthea," Shepard ordered.

"Wouldn't it be preferable to simply let him kill her? Perhaps his ire is justified," Thane proposed.

"I don't care how well his cause is justified. You don't plow through innocent lives like what he does. We're catching him and we're making him talk." She had enough of his games. He would explain himself.

"Illium isn't well known for having innocent people. But I still trust your judgement, Linda," Garrus returned.

Unfortunately, continuing on had proven to be easier said than done. Fredrick had torn the building inside out, forcing the trio to take repeated alternative routes through the rubble. There were many scenarios where they would race through entire blocks trying to catch up while catching a glimpse at the people he had maimed or killed, whether it be clinging to the stumps of their limbs, pressing down on gaping holes in their chest cavity, or trying to crawl to safety.

 _Shepard, I've got eyes on Samelthea. She's still running, but Fredrick is closing in behind him,_ Liara informed, presumably having hacked into the facility security cameras.

Grunting as she shoved aside a chunk of fallen floor, Linda returned, "I know, but he isn't leaving us any opportunity to catch him!"

 _If you still do, you might want to hurry!_

The call ended, but the 'encouragement' had not helped. She was trying to find a way to the garage, but the Terran had previously gone through to damage as many routes to the garage as possible to funnel his target into a predictable path. If it wasn't racing back the way she came, it was struggling with Thane and Garrus to the obstacle blocking progression.

 _Where are you, Shepard? He's at five meters and closing!_ Liara alerted.

"I'm kinda busy here, Liara. Is there any way you could find us a better alternative path to the garage?" Shepard responded in a sprint.

 _I could- oh Goddess... you're too late... he's caught her..._

"What?! Dammit! Try and stall him!"

 _She's dead, Shepard. There's nothing left we can do..._

* * *

 ** **17 hrs/02 min/25 sec****

Samelthea had never panicked for her life so dearly before the current encounter. He was just behind her, and he was closing in for the hunt. Mashing her ID card against the scanner, the doors to the garage seemed to hiss louder than usual. Dashing out and swinging her view back and forth, she set eyes on her skycar and began to make a run for it. Not a dozen running strides later, a searing hot pain shot up her right leg, causing her to fall flat on her stomach. Looking down, she screamed in horror and in pain as she clutched her stump before turning her eyes to see Fredrick now standing outside of the garage access doors, still training his rifle on her.

Turning back onto her stomach, she felt the adrenaline corse through her body as she dragged herself along the concrete floor for her life. Before she could respond with a biotic throw of her own, she felt the metal boot on her back force her flat on the ground and a hot metallic poke at the back of her head. "Hello Samelthea. I had bigger plans for this outing, but it looks like I overestimated you this time. I thought you'd be more on your feet." His rifle fired, taking the entire right side of her head clean off, leaving only her left eye to look to the side, watching as a pool of her blood formed underneath her and her hand twitch as the remaining signals finally ceased before slowly fading to white.

Fredrick watched with joy as he splattered her brains across the parking lot floor. For a moment, he felt like he'd been holding his breath, gradually feeling the need to exhale build up. Finally letting it out, it was refreshing as he continued to breath normally. His HUD lit up as Shepard called him. _M_ _ü_ _ller! What the hell is going on? What did you do?!_

Turning away for the exit, he gave one last glimpse behind him, looking at Samelthea's corpse. "No need to worry Shepard. It's over. The job's done," he responded calmly before suddenly ending the call. Walking to the control booth for the parking lot, he lept down from the booth to look out onto the Illium horizon, admiring the night-time skyline. For once, he felt at peace. He knew it was questionable, but was his desire not for justice? Wasn't he and millions of other synthetic Humans wronged when the Galaxy saw took back their trust, seeing them as enemies rather than allies? It was still a wake up call for the Harvester threat, but did the Asari need to cause the damage they had? Yes, it was justified. For all that was said and done, the Terrans were the real victims. Collectively, they have been avenged. Cobalt, Crimson, and the rest of the spectrum.

* * *

 **18 hrs/08 min/45 sec**

 ** _Normandy_ medbay**

Shepard was in an absolute fit when the team returned to the _Normandy_. He didn't care. He accomplished what no one else was willing to do. He sat on his foot locker, without changing out of his armor or cleaning it, and stared at the Alice's dog tags with his proposal ring on the chain, while allowing the chain to dangle free outside of his palm. Nodding, his fingers clasped around the pieces of metal and the ring. _"Rest well, darling. I'll be there soon."_

Looking up to see Linda enter the medbay, he tucked the tags away in his chest-plate pouches and stood to face her. "Shepard, I know plenty of innocents died today. I know that. I know that I became too zealous in my mission for revenge. I know you'll probably rant on about me being a heartless killer, but I don't want this to get in between us. If it makes you feel better, I'll even go so far to say that I'm sorry. What else do you want?"

She looked back with confusion. Just all his recent behavior seemed to conflict with all reason. "But why? Why just for one woman? Sure you took her team out as well, but was it really necessary to go out of your way to kill one last surviving member of that Asari Commando unit?"

He patted the pouch where he put the dog tags and ring before answering, "There is a much more complicated story behind this all. But like I said, I don't want to let this get between us. While I know there's no way I can try to convince you this was justified, all I can say is that I'm grateful you gave me this opportunity, and I'm eternally grateful for it. I'll be ready for our next deployment whenever you need me, no need to worry about this anymore. Now, I'll just go and wash off before you throw another fit." With a raised eyebrow, she watched the Terran exit the medbay.

* * *

 ** **Shepard lets Fredrick kill Samelthea:****

 **Sept 01, 2185**

 **17 hrs/15 min/41 sec**

 **Kray Inc. parking garage, Nan-Bei, Illium**

She finally reached the garage. He wasn't in sight, but the lack of anybody nearby was significantly troubling, aside from two dead security personnel lying on the floor. Rushing over to where she parker her car, she used what she still remembered from her commando training to gingerly scout the area for explosives or booby traps. So far, nothing. This was strange, it was almost too easy.

Her doubts were cut short by a distant explosion, reminding her of the imminent threat. Getting into her car, she put the key into the ignition and felt the comforting hum of the mass effect engine. As the car left the ground, she calmly steered it through the garage, landing her eyes on the exit. She was going to make it. Now, all she had to do was head home, pack her stuff, empty her accounts on Illium, then head back to Thessia and start all over. Maybe this time, she'd be lucky enough to outlive the crazy bastard. Her smile swiftly faded as the garage security doors shut. It was the oldest trick in the book, too.

"Surprise, bitch." Fredrick was standing at the control booth with an light anti-armor launcher he stole from the security officer lockers and had left by the booth earlier. With a single pull of the trigger, he launched the rocket, sending the skycar tumbling to the ground in flames. With an elligant motion, he lept over the railing and calmly strode over to what remained of Samelthea's car and punched out the windshield. Coughing on smoke and heavily bleeding from various injuries, he pulled the woman from the wreckage and tossed her roughly to the ground. "It's been a looong time. How have you been? I've been busy in life, so I didn't have time to catch up. If I had known you were on Illium, I would've come by and said hello!" He was grinning as he watched Samelthea drag herself over to a wall, leaving a trail of purple liquid behind her.

She coughed and glared back defiantly for the first few seconds, and uttered between coughs, "You really have a problem, don't you? Still hounding me like a sick animal after all this time?"

"The Harvesters are a constant problem and we all would've found out about them sooner or later, but you've been an especially big proponent in taking a shit on Terran PR. I'm pretty confident we would've had a better public standing if you just hadn't shown your ugly face. What, recruitment posters weren't enough for you?"

"Bet you wouldn't have been such a bastard either. So why me then? You do know as well as I do that Councilor Tevos gave the order. And why not just kill me right now if that's what you want?"

He grabbed her injured right leg and dragged her away from the wall. "She knows her place. She has to sit on her throne and pray to the heavens I just don't wisen up one day and shoot her where she stands. Besides, I'm content with letting this drag out for as long as possible. Let's play an Earth classic, shall we? It's called hangman. The objective of the game is to guess out a word or phrase, letter by letter. If you get the wrong word, you lose a limb. Once all your limbs are gone, you lose your head. Understand?"

"What I still don't understand is what the hell you plan on achieving," Linda said, walking up behind Fredrick, followed by Garrus and Thane.

"Oh, hey Shepard. What are you still doing here?" Oh, great. She just has to play the second-coming like she usually does.

"You haven't given me any reason to particularly trust you on this situation. I know who T'zeros is, and I know she was an Asari Commando. What I don't know is what you hope to achieve by killing her. She doesn't work for the Asari Republics anymore, and she certainly isn't stealing Terran secrets or whatever, so start talking," Linda spat.

Growling, Fredrick simply pulled his particle blade out and crouched next to Samelthea. "Oho, you wish she really was that innocent, don't you? Remember that little incident I mentioned concerning my first contact with Nazara? This bitch is knee deep in it. For the uninitiated, the Asari are very proud of their position on top of the technological food-chain, almost zealous too. Then the Terrans came along and were just _so_ threatening to their place above over the others. Taking some Harvester tech that the Salarians had found on the edges of Terminus Space, and an abducted Terran soldier for a test run, they wanted to see if they could use to put us in our place like dogs and their masters. Naturally, he got out, infected his own team, and almost let the Harvesters in for another round. When all was said and done, the Asari, especially Tevos, were all very hush-hush about the situation. And that wasn't all. The galaxy got all paranoid afterwards; whatever trust we earned, flushed away. So what if I kept the whole story hidden? Facts are facts, and this bitch is guilty as charged."

Linda stared at the crying Asari behind Fredrick for a moment. It all made sense now. As much as she wanted to prevent Fredrick from carrying this out, he was right. She knew from her own experiences that damage to a social structure took generations, if not centuries to fix. And if he really was going to let this go, maybe it would be better to let him carry out what he really wants. "I thought you were a senseless madman. I thought you were just an angry old man, blinded by fantasies from long ago. But now it's clear, and I'm not sure if letting her go would be the right choice either. Do what you will, Müller. I won't get in your way. We'll be waiting for you outside."

Fredrick lightly smiled under his helmet. "Thank you, Shepard. I know you wouldn't approve normally, but it's nice to know you are willing to see reason in my actions." As the other three walked out of the parking garage, he turned his attention back to Samelthea.

"Some 'hero' Shepard is," she said between fits of pain.

"And you are?" Fredrick leveled his rifle with her left knee and fired, causing her to scream out with pain. "We had done so much to play nice with the rest of the galaxy." He leveled his rifle with her left shoulder and pulled the trigger, causing another scream. "We wanted to be considered equals, but it just seemed like the council races were more content with the status quo." He readjusted his aim for her left leg knee and fired. "And for what? All that talk about civilized, fair government? Full of bullshit." He aimed at her right shoulder and fired. "Especially the Asari. They just have to stay at the top of the tech food chain." He fired three shots into her stomach. "And you know it, bitch." Poking the rifle at the bridge of her nose and firing, there was little left of her head that wasn't higher than the jaw when she finally stopped moving.

Holstering his rifle, he walked over to the garage entrance around the wrecked skycar, he looked out onto the Illium horizon, admiring the night-time skyline. He smiled knowing that for once, he was in the right. His cause was justified. Collectively, they have been avenged. Cobalt, Crimson, and the rest of the spectrum.

* * *

 **18 hrs/08 min/45 sec**

 **Normandy medbay**

Contently, he sat on his foot locker, without changing out of his armor or cleaning it, and stared at the Alice's dog tags with his proposal ring on the chain, while allowing the chain to dangle free outside of his palm with a smile on his face. Nodding, his fingers clasped around the pieces of metal and the ring. _"Rest well, darling. I'll be there soon."_

He didn't bother to rise when Shepard entered the medbay. Gingerly wrapping the chain around the tags, he looked up to her and asked, "How can I help you, commander?"

Nodding Linda simply asked, "How are you holding up? Think you'll be okay after this mess?"

"Of course, I'll be ready for the next deployment, whenever it is."

"So why did you have to keep this hidden? I'd have been more willing to help had you filled me in further."

"I was afraid... well... just afraid of exposing this. It was all when I had first encountered Nazara. The Asari were generally uncomfortable with our integration into society. Tevos assigned T'zeros to find a countermeasure to our tech, so she stole some newly found Harvester tech and a fellow soldier of mine. He proceeded to infect his own team and made a dash for activating the Citadel Relay. As a distraction, Nazara had him hire the Blood Pack to create a distraction, killing eight-hundred-thousand in the process. It was a terrible day, and we lost any and all good will we had built up until that point."

"See? Had you come out earlier, I would've even offered to have Garrus or Thane put a hole in her head. Though one thing still perplexes me. How is this personal to you?"

He sighed before putting Alice's tags on the locker underneath him and stood up. "That's another story for another day. I should clean up. Thanks again, Shepard." Linda further investigated what he had put aside before watching him disappear beyond the medbay doors.

* * *

 ** **Shepard fails to convince Fredrick:****

 **Sept 01, 2185**

 **17 hrs/15 min/41 sec**

 **Kray Inc. parking garage, Nan-Bei, Illium**

She finally reached the garage. He wasn't in sight, but the lack of anybody nearby was significantly troubling, aside from two dead security personnel lying on the floor. Rushing over to where she parker her car, she used what she still remembered from her commando training to gingerly scout the area for explosives or booby traps. So far, nothing. This was strange, it was almost too easy.

Her doubts were cut short by a distant explosion, reminding her of the imminent threat. Getting into her car, she put the key into the ignition and felt the comforting hum of the mass effect engine. As the car left the ground, she calmly steered it through the garage, landing her eyes on the exit. She was going to make it. Now, all she had to do was head home, pack her stuff, empty her accounts on Illium, then head back to Thessia and start all over. Maybe this time, she'd be lucky enough to outlive the crazy bastard. Her smile swiftly faded as the garage security doors shut. It was the oldest trick in the book, too.

"Surprise, bitch." Fredrick was standing at the control booth with an light anti-armor launcher he stole from the security officer lockers and had left by the booth earlier. With a single pull of the trigger, he launched the rocket, sending the skycar tumbling to the ground in flames. With an elligant motion, he lept over the railing and calmly strode over to what remained of Samelthea's car and punched out the windshield. Coughing on smoke and heavily bleeding from various injuries, he pulled the woman from the wreckage and tossed her roughly to the ground. "It's been a looong time. How have you been? I've been busy in life, so I didn't have time to catch up. If I had known you were on Illium, I would've come by and said hello!" He was grinning as he watched Samelthea drag herself over to a wall, leaving a trail of purple liquid behind her.

She coughed and glared back defiantly for the first few seconds, and uttered between coughs, "You really have a problem, don't you? Still hounding me like a sick animal after all this time?"

"The Harvesters are a constant problem and we all would've found out about them sooner or later, but you've been an especially big proponent in taking a shit on Terran PR. I'm pretty confident we would've had a better public standing if you just hadn't shown your ugly face. What, recruitment posters weren't enough for you?"

"Bet you wouldn't have been such a bastard either. So why me then? You do know as well as I do that Councilor Tevos gave the order. And why not just kill me right now if that's what you want?"

He grabbed her injured right leg and dragged her away from the wall. "She knows her place. She has to sit on her throne and pray to the heavens I just don't wisen up one day and shoot her where she stands. Besides, I'm content with letting this drag out for as long as possible. Let's play an Earth classic, shall we? It's called hangman. The objective of the game is to guess out a word or phrase, letter by letter. If you get the wrong word, you lose a limb. Once all your limbs are gone, you lose your head. Understand?"

"What I still don't understand is what the hell you plan on achieving," Linda said, walking up behind Fredrick, followed by Garrus and Thane.

"Oh, hey Shepard. What are you still doing here?" Oh, great. She just has to play the second-coming like she usually does.

"You haven't given me any reason to particularly trust you on this situation. I know who T'zeros is, and I know she was an Asari Commando. What I don't know is what you hope to achieve by killing her. She doesn't work for the Asari Republics anymore, and she certainly isn't stealing Terran secrets or whatever, so start talking," Linda spat.

Growling, Fredrick simply pulled his particle blade out and crouched next to Samelthea. "Oho, you wish she really was that innocent, don't you? Remember that little incident I mentioned concerning my first contact with Nazara? This bitch is knee deep in it. For the uninitiated, the Asari are very proud of their position on top of the technological food-chain, almost zealous too. Then the Terrans came along and were just _so_ threatening to their place above over the others. Taking some Harvester tech that the Salarians had found on the edges of Terminus Space, and an abducted Terran soldier for a test run, they wanted to see if they could use to put us in our place like dogs and their masters. Naturally, he got out, infected his own team, and almost let the Harvesters in for another round. When all was said and done, the Asari, especially Tevos, were all very hush-hush about the situation. And that wasn't all. The galaxy got all paranoid afterwards; whatever trust we earned, flushed away. So what if I kept the whole story hidden? Facts are facts, and this bitch is guilty as charged."

This would be difficult. Fredrick had over a century to think about this. "What? So you get to kill her? And what does that accomplish? That doesn't make you any better than her."

It clearly didn't resound well with Fredrick. "Has anything I've said made sense to you? This woman is exonerated by the sole reason that everything she's done is 'classified'. No one else knows, so no one else acts. I went to the lab she worked at! I alone did, and I alone uncovered the truth! Why else do you want her to live anyways? You don't know her and you've never met her. How is she important? What is her life worth?"

"Does any form of life bear any value to you? You just plowed through an office building who had nothing to do with her besides be her coworkers for the last several decades." Linda was trying to ignore the painful whimpers Samelthea was uttering. "You're just a heartless killer, so why don't you prove otherwise, starting here?"

"You have no idea. The galaxy always saw me specifically as a killer, starting with Khar'Shan. Nothing I have done since has redeemed that. Not even crashing smuggling rings, slaver groups, and entire drug cartels! Give me one last good reason why her life should be spared. I'm willing to listen, and as your turn as jury, I'm willing to hear what you have to say."

This was going faster south than she had anticipated. T'zeros' life was on a thread, and it wouldn't hold much longer unless she talked fast. "You're so focused on vengeance that you're not seeing any alternative! I want to help you, but only if you let me. Leave her for now, and we can find an alternative."

He shook his head in disappointment. She was still young and naive. She would never live as long as he has, and she would never see what his visual implants had recorded. Bringing back his arm, he swung his hand down towards Samelthea, launching a nanite blade clean into her forehead, instantly killing the Asari. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I want to be your ally, believe me. But the facts still stand: she deserved to die. No other court will grant her such a punishment." The four of them left the building without another word to each other, with the sickening sound of Samelthea's crunching skull left resonating in their heads.

* * *

 **18 hrs/08 min/45 sec**

 **Normandy medbay**

She now knew, and would be back to ask some more. Regardless, he accomplished what no one else was willing to do. He sat on his foot locker, without changing out of his armor or cleaning it, and stared at the Alice's dog tags with his proposal ring on the chain, while allowing the chain to dangle free outside of his palm. Nodding, his fingers clasped around the pieces of metal and the ring. _"Rest well, darling. I'll be there soon."_

As Shepard walked in, he quickly tucked in the dog tags to his top most pouch on his chest-plate before standing up. "Shepard, I know you wish the galaxy would be a more 'generous' place, but that's not how I was taught. The forces that allow chance events to occur aren't particularly forgiving, and I've had to learn that the hard way repeatedly," he started.

"Look, what's done is done, stow the bullshit, I'm not a kid. All I care now is why," she dismissed with annoyance. "Why her? Why make it a personal vendetta? You killed her team, so what was the purpose of finishing the job?"

He patted the pouch where he put the dog tags and ring before answering, "There is a much more complicated story behind this all. But like I said, I don't want to let this get between us. While I know there's no way I can try to convince you this was justified, all I can say is that I'm grateful you gave me this opportunity, and I'm eternally grateful for it. I'll be ready for our next deployment whenever you need me, no need to worry about this anymore. Now, I'll just go and wash off before you throw another fit." With a raised eyebrow, she watched the Terran exit the medbay.


End file.
